Solitude of the Hero
by korne-pokemon-luv
Summary: It's been 5 years since the day that Naruto Uzumaki had been betrayed by his comrades. However after stumbling into the River Country which had been under attack lately Naruto might be forced to help those in need as well as once again work with those he was abandoned by. Will he ever find a place to call home? Or will he have to travel the path of solitude forever?
1. A Stranger in a Cloak!

**Hi everyone, this is my first Naruto fanfic so I hope you like it. This story takes place a few years after Naruto therefore Naruto Shippuden never happened, but I'll still keep most of the powers Naruto had in Shippuden. Anyway let's begin the story!**

* * *

The massive blue ocean reflected the golden sun's rays while absorbing its heat. The sky was clear with not a single cloud in sight; birds gracefully flew around in the open. The morning was unbearably hot as a single wooden boat travelled across the landscape, with two figures aboard.

"So what brings you to the River Country Sonny?" An old man with a white beard and a blue handkerchief around his head asked his passenger.

"I'm just passing through," The young boy answered his voice scarcely heard from behind the black cloak with a golden lining running across the bottom as well as the long sleeves, his hood was lying over his head, therefore only some of the bridge of his nose was visible.

"Where are you heading off to then my boy?"

"Waterfall Country" The camouflaged figure answered simply.

"I see," The old man answered, he wanted to ask the young man a few more questions however he decided to hold back, "Oh look there son, the coast is coming into view!"

The old man stared at the boy who swiftly stood up from the small wooden bench he sat on. The old man hoped to see the boy's face as he stood up however his plan failed as the hood and the high collar of his cloak didn't budge and even though they ruffled gently in the breeze neither gave way.

The sailor gave up and turned back to staring at the horizon, his blue top with a white collar swayed with the wind and his brown shorts joined in shortly after creating a loud flapping sound.

Minutes later the duo arrived at the harbour the old man threw the heavy steel anchor over the side of the boat as they parked in a small spot belonging to the elderly man. The young lad leapt off of the boat at that moment and landed safely on the pavement.

"Thanks for the ride old man here's the money," The boy exclaimed as he threw a brown silky wallet over to the man before he walked away.

The man caught the wallet and peeked inside, "This… this is way too much," he stammered as he stared at the figure who strolled away, the man was just about to jump out of the boat to run to the boy however just as he was about to follow the passenger, he lifted his hand up and turned his head before calling out "Keep it, you need it more than I" With that the boy's hood floated up slightly revealing one of his crystal blue eyes which shimmered in the light.

"That kid is something else," The man whispered to himself before he smiled and put the wallet into his pocket.

* * *

The young man travelled through the tiny village that lay on the south coast of the River Country, there was a few interesting markets here and there however the boy just casually walked past them looking for one shop in particular.

"Oh man, I'm starved what's with this village don't they have any shops with food?" The traveller asked himself.

After a few more minutes which seemed like hours of searching the traveller finally found a restaurant not exactly what he had in mind but food was food and he sure was hungry!

"Original Sushi, Super Sushi, Instant Sushi, New Salmon Sushi… Oh man don't they have anything else other than sushi?" The mysterious teen sighed before adding "Guess I have no choice, sushi it is then!" He exclaimed and as he was about to walk through the wooden door BOOM…

The boy took a step back and looked a few km behind the building. Screams of fright and agony exploded all around as women and children run to find shelter followed by old people while the men raced towards the explosion. Grey smoke rapidly rose into the once clear sky, the air smelt polluted and the crackling of flames could be heard as they devoured everything and everyone in their path.

The young man sighed as he slowly made his way toward the building which was ablaze; he ignored all the pushing and shoving as he kept his pace slow and casual. To tell the truth the boy didn't even care however he knew there was no way he could enjoy his food with all the smoke and racket on the streets.

Soon the stranger reached his destination, it was a large academy created solitarily for the Kaza clan, one of the five strongest clans in the River Country. The Kaza clan was very well known for the massive academy and even though it was only four floors high it had a very large terrain.

The children, who all had the jumper with their clan's logo which looked a lot like a black scorpion with a blood red outline, stood quietly in lines as the teachers went through their names and marked them off. Many of the children however held their arms over their eyes to protect themselves from the rapidly spreading flames.

"Sota, Sota… Sotatsu Kontaru?" A female teacher with chocolate, shoulder length hair was calling out over the neatly arranged groups of children.

"He hasn't come out Sensei," The tranquil voice of a young girl around the age of eight answered shyly, and the stranger could have sworn that the child had tears in her eyes.

Panic exploded between all children and staff as everyone searched the playground for the missing child who was no were to be seen.

"Oh man what a mess," The hidden figure sighed.

Within moments all hell broke loose and all the adults and teens who stood outside the fence attempted to break into the academy to help search for the absent boy. A girl who was covered by a cream coloured cloak and a hood which covered her head stood not far from the shadowed figure. Every being in sight was running through the now broken gates of the Academy fencing, until the mysterious teen and the hidden girl where the only once left staring through the fence.

"Aren't you going to help them?" The young woman asked as she walked and stopped beside the hidden boy.

"No, I'm just waiting for the commotion to die out so that I can finally eat something in peace"

The girl looked at him and a lock of lilac hair escaped from under her hood. She opened her mouth in order to say something however she was interrupted by a loud feminine voice coming from one of the teachers.

"Oh my, look, over there everyone!" She yelled as she pointed her finger out at the Academy's front doors.

Everyone's sight followed the woman's finger as they stared into the flames. Two figures could be made out through the smoke one taller than the other. The fire engines soon arrived and those with the ability to use water style begun extinguishing the flames.

Finally the succeeded and all that was present was dark, gloomy smoke. Eventually through the thick smoke screen the two figures stepped out. The taller one was a female with two violet ponytails on either side of her head, her bangs fell onto the cat mask she wore on her face. Her clothing was dark and mysterious; on her feet she wore black sandals with a silver zip on the inner side. Her black cloak covered almost her entire body reaching down to her knees. From under the cloak a slight glimpse of her shiny grey shorts was visible.

By the girl's side stood a young boy around the age of eight or nine, his skin was burnt in a few places and his raven hair was muttered all over. His clothing was also scorched revealing some of his bloody skin from beneath. His jeans were covered in ash and also had a few rips. Only his left foot had the comfort of his sandal as his right foot was covered in scarlet blood and was raised slightly off the ground to prevent bacteria from entering the child's body.

"Sota!" An overjoyed lady shrieked, as tears escaped her eyes her husband run alongside her and the little boy released his grasp on his saviour and limped towards his parents, his eyes swollen from crying and from the smoulder alike.

Soon shouts and orders could be heard emerging from deep inside the crowd of spectators as a few clan members sprinted through towards the violet haired girl, shouting as the went "Yukiko get back here right now!"

However the lass noticed them just in time to be able to escape from the grabbing hand, she yelled as she escaped followed by her pursuers "I'm not Yukiko, my name is Nariko Yonai remember it!" Her voice quickly faded away into the distance.

The girl whom stood beside the mysterious boy looked up at him one more time before she too followed the group.

The stranger turned around on the spot before he made his way back to the sushi shop.


	2. A Battle within the Dakness

"I'm stuffed," The voice of a young man covered up by a dark cloak exclaimed as he stretched out across the bench, the chubbiness of his stomach was visible even with the cloak covering his body.

The sun outside the sushi shop was blazing in the beautiful, clear sky and almost all signs of the previous chaos settled. Most people kept their distance from the large beat up building nevertheless there was a few that stood by the fence and red and white tape that clearly stated 'DANGER'. A couple of police officers with their police dogs investigated the sudden eruption of flames which occurred only a few hours before. Most children were taken back to their homes however two young boys, one of which was clearly not from the Kaza clan, and a pretty girl stood behind the large dark trunk of a gorgeous green tree.

The girl wore a navy knee length dress with black sandals accompanied by two fish tank leg warmers. The female member of the group had her chestnut hair tied up in two ponytails which reached down just below her shoulders. One of the boys standing beside the girl had dark hair which was spiked up; his clothing consisted of the clan's jumper, dark blue tracksuit bottoms and black sandals which only revealed the toes. The other boy conversely had silver hair which was spiked in some areas however it was mostly flopped down covering one of his mischievous grey eyes. The youngster's jumper was bright red with the logo of a silver horse with a horn also called a unicorn along the top of the flowing mane sat the single Japanese character for 'DREAM'. The also had black jumpsuit bottoms with dark sandals which revealed his heal and toes.

The gentle breeze ruffled the ember leaves of the large oak tree and the three children all peaked out from behind the immense chocolate trunk.

"What do you think happened Rintaro?" The young girl asked as she looked at the dark haired boy who dropped down to the ground in a sitting position.

"Don't know, you might want to ask that idiot, after all he's the one who didn't even bother coming to class today," The boy answered as he leaned against the tree with his eyes closed.

"How many times do I have to tell you that I had a bad feeling?" The silver haired asked without taking his eyes of the school building.

"Whatever, you just didn't want to go to class, admit it moron,"

"What did you call me?"

"You heard me," The dark haired boy argued as he opened his eyes to look at the slightly smaller boy, who's temper was about to snap.

"Calm down you guys, there's no need to argue, and even if Sotan didn't want to come to class he still saved us from the fire." The girl said trying to calm the two boys down.

"Yeah I guess," The taller boy, who went by the name of Rintaro agreed.

The silver haired boy didn't answer that time he kept his sight on the ash covered building.

The girl noticing the boy's sudden change of mood quietly walked towards him and also looked out from behind the tree. Nonetheless apart from the soot covered fallen building and the occasional teacher, police officer that walked past there was nothing out of the ordinary.

"Sotan, are you ok?" She tried to ask as she stepped back.

No reply.

"Sota?" She tried again but slightly louder, she used his nickname this time.

Still no reply.

"Sota, are you ok?" The girl's voice sounded uncertain now.

Sotan however still stood like a statue obviously deep within a daydream.

"Hey, idiot," The voice of Rintaro broke the silver haired boy from his trance.

"What did you just call me, retard?" Sotan burst out.

"What's wrong with you? You've been daydreaming"

"I was just thinking!"

The girl smiled as she realised that the boy was fine.

"Mako was talking to you," Rintaro answered pointing at the girl causing her to turn a gentle shade of pink.

Sotan turned to the young lass and asked surprised "What is it?"

"Nn.. it's nothing" Came the girl's instant response as she shook her hands.

Sotan shrug his shoulders and turned around, allowing Mako to relax.

"I'm going," Sotan said unexpectedly surprising the two children beside him.

Rintaro and Mako exchanged looks before they looked back at their companion who was walking away. The pair then looked back at each other and shrugged their shoulders before Rintaro rose back to his feet and both he and Mako left to follow the boy who was already gone.

Sotan calmly walked through the streets of the city; he ignored all the crowds of people keeping his pace casual. Now that the school was burned down he didn't have anywhere to go at least until tomorrow when everyone would return to find out what to do next, if the school will be cancelled for some time, or if the lessons will continue in another building, either way that meant that Sota could spend that day doing whatever he wanted.

Suddenly the young boy stopped, just a few feet away from a sushi shop where a cloaked figure was just exiting, his face was covered, and this made it hard for Sota to identify the figure.

'I've seen that figure somewhere before,' Thought the boy, 'that's it, he was standing by the fence of the school when it was ablaze'

The figure gripped the handle of the door with his black fingerless, gloved hand and tugged it towards him until the door shut. The stranger then walked away in the direction Sotan was planning to go. 'He's going the same way as me; I guess it wouldn't hurt to follow the guy,'

Sota walked after the shadowy figure, he knew that if he tried to hide it would make it more obvious to the stranger that he was following him, so the silver haired boy decided to blend in with the crowd for the time being. The young silver haired child followed the stranger for some time longer until a short sharp scream was heard from a nearby ally. Sotan turned in the direction the scream came from, and just as he turned back he realised that the individual had disappeared.

'Oh man, why does this always happen to me?' Sota thought to himself as he searched all around, his temper rising. However just as he thought he was going to burst from anger at how stupid he was to let the stranger get away, he remembered the scream and decided that since there was no way he could find the outsider now, he might just as well investigate the scream. With that thought in mind the kid sprinted of in the direction he heard the desperate cry come from.

Sota ran through the crowds, past shops and houses until he reach a dark, spooky alleyway. It sat in the middle of an abandoned office and a shop which was said to be haunted.

"You can't be serious," Sota sweat dropped as he stared at the path that led into the darkness and away from humanity.

With a deep breath he stepped forward and as another almost silent scream escaped from the obscurity, he swallowed his saliva and quickened his pace.

As Sota made his way deeper into the dimness his eyes adjusted and he could now make out the outlines of a few things such as an empty bin, a pipe with drops of water crashing to the ground from time to time. Then suddenly Sota heard the deep, scary voice coming from a few feet away.

"Who are you?" The stern voice roared.

Sotan leapt behind the trash can, the voice ringing in his head.

"So, you're not going to answer me then, too bad then it's not as if I care," Sota shivered slightly, there was no way he was going to come out and reveal himself, he only hoped that the owner of the frightening voice would somehow forget about him.

"I was getting hungry anyway" The voice of the monster echoed off the walls.

Sota shivered once again, 'There's no way I'm going to be eaten!' he thought to himself but his thought was interrupted when something crashed into the trash can tipping it onto the boy and burring him under something soft but slightly heavy . He started panicking. He heard the rapid approach of feet coming his way, adrenaline overfilled his body and he attempted to escape but was frozen with terror. The loud clank of metal making contact brought him back to his senses.

"I'm surprised you managed to counter, but don't think you'll be so lucky next time,"

Sota managed to slip out from under the object that was lying on top of him and as he allowed himself to examine it he realised that it was actually a girl, her hair was muttered and she was knocked out unconscious. Sota guessed the girl was around fifteen. Another clank of metal caused Sotan to look up and he was surprised to see a large, muscular figure his features where unclear due to the lack of light, however Sota could see a few sparks escaping from his hand. Sota then noticed the cloaked figure from before standing away from Sota so only the back of his cloak was visible. Another few sparks escaped and Sotan noticed the sparks where actually coming from the two kunai that where attempting to cut through each other both full force.

A single spot of light that managed to escape from behind the building shone onto the muscular figures face and a small drop of sweat leaked down his cheek before he was once again shrouded in darkness.

"Who are you, how is it that you can counter attack me with such ease?" The man managed to splutter.

Then there was another loud metallic clank and the man's kunai flew out of his grasp and into the air. Sota could feel the terror the man was emitting as his outline tried to further itself away from his opponent. Without warning the shape turned around and bolted, not daring to look back.

The other figure slipped the kunai back into his sleeve and without turning around to look at Sota he said "Get her to the hospital, now" and with that he jumped into the air and out of the passageway.

Sota stared into the sky for a little while longer and finally remembering the stranger's words he picked the girl up placing her arm around his shoulder and dragged her out carefully before leaping into the air and soaring away in the direction of the infirmary. Luckily the hospital wasn't far from their current position.

* * *

"Man, I'm beat," The voice of a young teenage man filled the salty air of the harbour.

The young man in a black cloak sat down on a bench on the hard pavement where the cool breeze brushed over everything in its path including the teen that ignored it as he sloppily sat on the wooden bench. Even though his face was covered, just by looking at his posture anyone could have guessed that his eyes where closed and he was slowly falling into oblivion.

The boy was awoken a few minutes later by the sound of hoof beats which clattered along the side of the road. He turned his head to where the sound was coming from, and was surprised at what he saw, all sorts of people young and old where overpopulating the pavements, all staring at the road.

The young man stretched before he stood up onto the backrest of the bench, his body perfectly balanced on the rim. Whispers surrounded him all around and from time to time small bits of conversations entered he ears; "Isn't that the princess?", "The older daughter of the Takeda clan must be in there", "I heard the younger daughter escaped again", "They must have captured the princess finally" the conversations continued however each and every one was about a princess or younger daughter of some sort.

The young man continued to stand on the rim of the backrest of the bench, until finally he caught the sight of a large pink carriage, which was being pulled by a pair of spotless, white horses. The driver of the carriage was dressed smartly in a black suit with a red rose attached to his left side breast pocket. A few pure bred beagles walked beside the brougham keeping everyone at bay and not allowing them to come to close to the stagecoach. There was no way for the teen to see who or what was inside however he had a feeling it was either something precious or someone important. Judging by the colour of the transport they were taking, it was most likely a female, and a very rich one for that matter. Another carriage followed shortly after however this time it was purple, the horses looked almost identical to the once from the previous carriage and surprisingly even more dogs surrounded this one. The cloaked figure could see the shadow of someone struggling within the trap. As he kept staring at the shadows fighting inside he could feel the change in the atmosphere and suddenly one of the shadowy shapes disappeared bringing chaos along. Dogs begun barking madly, one of the horses reared up as the driver tried to get it back under control the other two figures then popped out of the carriage, both looked like maids one was slightly taller that the other with chestnut hair tied in a bun while the other had blond hair in a ponytail. Both maids wore the exactly same black dresses with white aprons tied in a bow at the back.

The teenage figure hopped off the bench hoping to avoid the mayhem that was about to break loose in the village square. He casually walked further down to the docks in order to enjoy some more fresh air.

* * *

Sotan stood by the hospital window staring at the chaos below which occurred just recently. The younger daughter of the Takeda clan escaped once again. Surprisingly this happened very often, no one knew why she did it however there were some rumours about how the girl was jealous of her older sister becoming the next queen. Many daughter this idea however and had their own views and opinions.

Sotan took one last look out of the window before turning around and adjusting his jumper, it was going to be rough getting through those crowds.

* * *

**Finally finished, I hope all of you liked this chapter and will keep reading this story, fingers crossed ;) **

**I would really appreciate it if you reviewed, and hopefully if you could point out any mistakes that I could improve on, or if you would like to give me some tips, ideas for future chapters also accepted. Oh and the more reviews the faster the chapters will be updated. :D**

**Anyway I tried to make this chapter longer than any other chapter I've written so far. It didn't really work since it's only slightly longer (not including A/N) -_-**

**Finally I would like to thank all of my readers especially the following:**

**_Dusk666 and T17 for adding this story in their favourites._**

**_A. , Terminus Purgo, XP 1228 and shadowbroker13 for alerting this story._**

**_Aktaiy, Ragingpen, EmylynnFae for alerting this story as well as adding it to their favs._**

**Thanks to all of you and I hope you'll keep reading :)**


	3. Teams assembled: Key of loneliness!

**A/N: Just a small heads up to help with the chapter ~**

**Sweat Drop - The Sweat Drop is a popular icon that can be used to express nervousness, worry, embarrassment or confusion.**

**Blushing - Blushing is an exaggeration of real-life blushing, blushing can be used to convey embarrassment, arousal, happiness or to show a character is drunk or even ill.**

**Cross-Popping Vein - The Popped Vein is usually red or black in color, and occasionally blue or purple, popped or "cross-popping" veins are shown to convey anger or frustration.**

**Gloom Lines - Gloom Lines are usually a dark blue or purple color, parallel lines appear on the face, above the head or in some cases even behind characters as a large backdrop. Straight lines may represent mortification, fatigue, or even horror, while wavy lines may represent depression or disgust.**

**Visible Sigh - The Visible Sigh is a sign of exasperation, a small cloud often resembling a mushroom appears from their mouth, sometimes accompanied with a sound effect.**

**Dizzy Eyes - Dizzy eyes, usually replacing eyes with black swirls, indicate dizziness, confusion or show a character is unconscious.**

**Heart Eyes - Heart eyes, usually replacing eyes with large red love hearts, indicate affection, attraction or full-on love.**

* * *

The sun slowly rose from behind the emerald hills the light emitted from it covered the village rapidly, signalling the start of a new day. Curtains where pulled back or blinds where pulled up, as everyone welcomed the new day… Well almost everyone.

In a small house which only consisted of one floor, in a small cluttered room filled with half eaten sandwiches, juice cartons dirty clothing, video games and many other unnecessary things stood a bed. The clear white pillow sat on the ground leaning against the side of the bed. There was a blue duvet which lay wrinkled on the mattress. A lump was visible in the middle of the bedding.

The midnight blue blind was hanging down hiding the room in darkness and the thick curtains provided extra protection from the bright morning light. All was peaceful until…

"SOTAN!" A voice of a young woman yelled as the wooden door of the bedroom flew open.

A young woman was revealed standing by the door her jet black hair was all over her sweaty face, fire flared up from her eyes as she made her way over to the centre of the room, banging her high heels on the floor as she did.

As she reached the bed she stretched her hands out and grabbed for the cover unravelling it. She then shook it twice, suddenly with a loud thud a boy flew onto the ground snoring loudly. Cross popping veins appeared on her face as she stared at the figure of the sleeping boy.

"SOTAN!" She yelled once more as she grabbed the child by the collar of his short sleeve top and ruthlessly shook him back and forth.

Drool slithered out from the boy's mouth as his eyes turned into swirls; he flopped to the ground as the girl dropped him recklessly and made her way the window before wrapping up the curtains and pulling the blinds up allowing the sun to devour the murkiness.

"Hey what did you do that for?" Sounded the yawning voice of the silver haired boy.

The young woman span around on the spot so that she was facing the owner of the voice. Sotan stood in front of her his eyes glued together as he scratched his head.

"What do you think you're doing, I leave you for two days and when I come back I find out your school has been burned down and while everyone is in the playground, waiting for further instructions, your snoring in this mess of a room. Didn't it even cross your mind that I may want to know what's happening here?" The woman shouted as she stared at the kid before her.

"Sorry I guess I forgot," The boy answered causing the girl's cross popping veins to reappear.

She looked at Sotan who was picking up his old, smelly clothing from the floor and attempting to put it on, however the girl snatched it away from him.

"How long have you been wearing these?" She asked as she tried to block her nose with her free hand, throwing the mucky clothes out through the door with the other.

"Hey what are you doing?" Sotan asked as he finally managed to open his eyes.

"Here, go get a shower and put these on for today," The girl answered throwing him clean clothes which she pulled out from his wardrobe.

"That's not fair, sis" Moaned the silver haired.

"Hurry up everyone's waiting for you!" She ordered before grumpily as she pointed out of the room.

Sotan followed her orders and run out through the wooden door.

The teenage girl sighed as she looked around the room. "Oh bother, I'll have to clean this up later." With that she made her way out of the room in order to prepare breakfast.

* * *

"Where could he be?" A young girl asked herself as she circled around a shinobi and student filled playground of the burned down Kaza clan's playground.

The girl's hair, as if reflecting on her moon, swung madly from side to side. The who looked a few months older than her casually stood in line with his classmates as their teacher called out their name from the register.

"Mako," Came the voice of the sensei and the young girl instantly returned to her place and answered her name, her gaze still flying all around the playground.

"Where are you?" She whispered to herself.

"Sotan," Hearing the name of her missing teammate didn't help to calm the girl down.

"Is Sotan here?" The jounin asked once more.

Mako was about to answer but was interrupted by a voice coming from the entrance, "I'm here!"

Instantly Mako turned her head in the direction of the tone. The young girl was surprised though at what the boy was wearing instead of his normal clothing he had a blue t-shirt with the same silver horse at the front as the one on the shoulder of his jumper. The long sleeves of the fishnet escaped from under the short blue sleeves which reached down slightly past his elbow. He had blue pants which looked similar to the ones that some of the jounin and chunin wore. His sandals were also a matching blue which left the toes visible.

Mako heard her other comrade hold back his laughter and she couldn't help but give him an evil glare.

"I'm sorry Mako but that's so not his style," Tears of amusement where now visible in Rintaro's eyes.

The girl was then interrupted when she heard her sensei's annoyed voice, "You're late" his eyebrow twitched as he said this and the young boy who just joined the class quickly exclaimed, "Sorry sensei, my big sis returned today and started ordering me around."

The teacher couldn't say any more as a sudden voice boomed across the playground.

"I'm Goro, and I came here on the behalf of my brother who is currently the head of the Kaza clan. Now as you all now the genin exams are approaching fast but due to the sudden collapse of the school, the plans have changed."

All the children burst out into whispers, "No way don't tell me the exams are cancelled," Sota exclaimed to no one in particular.

"Now instead of the normal exams that would take place in two months' time, the course will begin tomorrow!" Goro continued.

This time sighs of surprise could be heard.

"Now I will explain how this works. The course will last two weeks during this time you will have to train in order to get stronger; you will do this in groups of three. Each group will be assigned a jounin, their role is to help you train, and however it's up to them how they want to do this. You are also going to get a D rank missing to complete during that period of time. At the end of the training period there will be four tests; one, a test of strength, two, a test of mind, three, a test of courage and finally the hardest of all, the test of skill, strength, courage, mind and team work put together. You must pass at least three to become genin and your results from the mission will be taken into a count." With the speech finished the children burst into cheers, and the old man smiled before he walked away signalling that it was the Jounin's turn to act.

It took a while for all the commotion to settle but when it finally did the teams where announced, with Sota, Mako and Rintaro as a team along with a tall, male, Jounin with chocolate eyes, long shaggy black hair and black trousers along with a black shirt and a brown body warmer which was unzipped.

"I'm going to be your teacher now so call me Yoichi-Sensei, alright?" The Jounin asked as everyone was dismissed with their new teams.

The three children nodded as the group made their way out of the playground.

"Where're we going anyway?" Sotan asked as he walked at the back of the group with his arms behind his head.

"Where else? Kamikaze Miso Soup of course it only opened yesterday," The Jounin answered casually.

Sotan's eyes widened instantly at the sound of food and a wide smile spread across his face. Mako giggled quietly under her breath at the behaviour of her teammate.

The team walked in silence for some time until Rintaro broke the tranquillity by asking "When do we start training?"

Yoichi looked down at the boy who had a short thin stick in his mouth and grinned before answering, "We'll start training tomorrow for now, let's just get to know each other,"

Rintaro nodded however he had a disappointed look in his eyes, as if to say he wanted to begin training right away.

"Hey sensei, are you really that strong? I've never seen you before," The words escaped Sotan's mouth, which surprised his two comrades.

"Sota don't be so rude," Mako hushed the boy down.

Yoichi however smiled once more before answering "Actually I'm new here so I don't have much experience with training youngsters but whether or not I'm strong is up to you to decide"

'For some reason I feel like he's kinda weak' Sotan's thoughts where interrupted by Rintaro who casually asked "Sensei, that bin was following us for some time now do you think we should do something about it?"

This question caused the group, except Rintaro, to turn around and as they did so a thud escaped from behind them where a green bin sat silently in the middle of the path. The gang sweat-dropped at the lame disguise before Yoichi exclaimed loudly, "We know your there so show yourselves!" With that the group got into the fighting stances each, including Rintaro, holding a kunai.

Suddenly the base of the bin lifted and a black flash escaped from under before reappearing before the group. A ninja whose face was covered by a black mask, and whose clothing consisted of a single black skin tight onesie and black sandals stood before them.

"So you managed to find me, well done, your pretty sharp"

"Well it's not every day you find a walking bin," commented Yoichi, which caused the kids to get gloom lines as they all noticed that their teacher didn't even notice the moving bin.

"Now explain yourself, why where you following us?" The Jounin commanded.

The masked ninja smirked before launching forward at their opponent. The three kids kept their stances ready for when their teacher requested back up.

The two older ninja clashed their kunai against each other Yoichi, to the students surprise was being pushed back. As the kunai connected once more the masked person was about to draw the black weapon and strike their opponent when Yoichi struck his kunai out first. The masked ninja did a flip over the Jounin landing neatly behind him and avoiding the attack, and just as he was about to thrush the kunai into the Jounin he spun around quickly causing the kunai to connect once more with a loud cling.

The children watched amazed at the battle that was unfolding right before their eyes, the trio was forced to sprint after the duo no and then as the two older ninja danced around the deserted shortcut to the newly opened shop.

Then suddenly out of nowhere a few kunai pierced through the air and in a flash the two older ninja where pinned against a red, brick wall.

'Impossible, where did those come from?' Yoichi asked himself as he raised his head up, to his surprise a cloaked figure stood by the entrance of a ramen shop, which was surprisingly in the opposite direction to where he was heading in the first place with his team, the figure had an outstretched arm pointing in their direction.

'Did he throw those?' The question filled the mind of the Jounin and almost instantly he shut his eyes and focused on emptying his mind.

A colourless world met him within seconds, a place uninhabited by any creature dead or alive. There was nothing there apart from a few keys floating in mid-air, where no breeze or oxygen was present. He looked around at each of the keys there was one directly next to him as well as the three a few feet away standing together. However further back there was another key, that key was different though, he didn't know how, but somehow something felt different about the dark, rotating door input. Without thinking all of the power of concentration was targeted on the small object, gradually the speed of the rotation increased and within moment a bright white flash escaped from the spinning vortex.

The entire field of vision was now surrounded in white, pure white.

What was this place, usually this whereabouts would have been filled with thoughts and emotions, as well as memories and feelings. However this place was completely blank, how was this even possible? How was it that someone could live with their mind completely empty? Or was it that they were using a ninjutsu to lock their mind away?

Suddenly however a single thought echoed through the emptiness, a thought which had almost no meaning which would normally be ignored and hidden by all those other emotions. Currently however there was not a single place for this thought to go, it simply bounced of the pure curtain of white, and yet it felt comforting just knowing that at least there was something here. The single thought of 'Finally I can have my ramen in peace' seemed like a pointless thought and yet it seemed to carry meaning and many emotions and other thoughts blended perfectly together just like a delicious, fresh bowl of ramen.

Suddenly the echoing melted away and the whiteness vanished.

"Sensei, are you alright?" The worried voice of a young girl brought the Jounin back to reality, back from his 'mind reading jutsu'. Back from the loneliness.

Yoichi's eyes flashed open and he saw Mako's happy eyes as she gave a sigh of relief. The Jounin looked past the girl however and at the figure that had already lowered his arm and was making his way into the ramen shop.

'What was that feeling?" The ninja asked himself before realising something "Did he use those kunai to pin us down just because we were in the way of the shop?" He whispered, before shaking his head and looking back at the children.

Mako sat beside him, her hand on his forehead as she tried to check if his temperature was fine. Rintaro stood by his other side trying to pull out the kunai that was rammed deep into the concrete. Sotan hadn't moved from his spot though as he stared wide eyed at the small ramen shop.

'That was amazing, he threw those kunai and they moved so fast not even sensei could sense their approach.' Sotan thought to himself not daring to take his eyes of the figure, that's when he remembered 'Wasn't that the same guy from yesterday night?'

"Hey, Sotan are you going to help us or just stand there?" The annoyed voice of Rintaro brought him back from his thoughts.

"Yeah I'm coming," The boy answered still dazed slightly.

* * *

"Now what should I get?" The voice of the young man in the cloak asked, "Oh I know, hey can I have one of those super ramen with extra egg!"

"One super ramen with extra egg coming right up," The voice  
of a young girl answered.

"Now this is the life, I've finally found a ramen shop," The man whispered to no one in particular.

* * *

**Sorry for not updating for so long I just kept redoing the chapter and the beginning still doesn't seem right. Can you guys please PM me or review if you have any ideas of how to improve this chapter or if you think it's rushed. There's also a POLL on my profile regarding this story so please vote ;).I tried to make it longer than the rest though. Anyway I would like to thank all of you who are reading this story and I want to give special thanks to:**

**_Ricktor705 and SinOfDisaster ~ For reviewing (You really made me happy thank you :D)_**

**_Ricktor705 (again), SinOfDisaster (again) and otakufangirl101~ For adding this story to their fav_**

**_the riding rider, jh831, Ricktor705, , Trak The Cat and jh831~ For alerting_**

**Thank you all and I hope you keep reading :D**


	4. Treasure Hunt and Sota's New Teacher

"All right team! Let's begin the training!" An over enthusiastic Jounin exclaimed to the three children standing in front of him.

"What's up with him?" Sotan asked slightly confused.

"He's probably trying to forget the humiliation of yesterday," Rintaro answered casually, while grinding a tiny twig with his sharp teeth.

"Huh, you mean when he was caught with those kunai?"

Mako nodded her head innocently as she stared at the poor expression on her teachers face, causing him to drop his head down in mortification and allowing cobalt gloom lines to appear over his depressed head.

Mako giggled gently at the expression of the Jounin while Rintaro stood motionlessly by her side.

The day was warm as the sun rose from its peaceful slumber and its rays stretched across the mysterious world. A world filled with many contradicted feelings such as love and hate, jealousy and admiration, chastity and lust as well as many other emotions felt by the millions maybe even billions of living creatures on a single planet, a planet that went by the name of Earth.

"So what should we do first?" Sotan asked as Yoichi raised his head up.

The Jounin's face instantly lit up as he exclaimed excitedly "Ummm, let's see first we'll do a treasure hunt!"

"What!" The three kids all shouted at the same time as they stared open-mouthed at the Jounin.

"Sensei, how will a treasure hunt help us improve our skills, and prepare us for the exam?" Sotan asked.

"You'll see," Yoichi commented before adding quickly so that none of the children could drop out "There is only one rule and that's that you mustn't exit the village or at least not alone, now I'll leave you too it good-luck!" With that said the Jounin disappeared.

"Wait where do we start," Sotan questioned the smoke of cloud where their sensei stood moments ago.

Mako simply sighed as she looked around to check if their sensei left any clues behind.

"You won't find anything here now let's go," Rintaro said as he turned around, about to leave.

"Where do we go?" Sotan asked as he stared at the dark haired boy in confusion.

Rintaro turned his head to look at him and stated "We have to search for the starting point,"

Sotan and Mako exchanged glances before eyeing their teammate.

"The village is large, how are we supposed to find a starting point?" Mako voice was gentle and questioning as she kept her eyes on the slightly older boy.

"We'll have to split up," Was the simple answer that the girl received from her comrade.

After trading glances once again Mako and Sotan agreed.

"Alright I'll take the north side, Sotan you take the East and Mako take the south,"

Once again the two younger children nodded before they set the time and place to return to and wished each other good luck before running towards their designated areas.

Sotan raced through the streets as fast as he could, he wanted to become stronger and if that meant doing a stupid quest like this then be it. As he darted through the crowds of people he noticed a familiar hooded figure going into the ramen store. Sotan managed to stop himself from following the mysterious stranger and kept his pace up as he ran East to where the main gate of the village was.

It didn't take the boy long to get there and when he finally reached the endpoint he searched around for a few minutes however found nothing. It didn't take him long to realise that it was almost time to meet his teammates, and so he dashed off back in the direction of the split up point.

As the silver haired closed in on the spot he could see Rintaro already waiting with a piece of paper in his left hand.

Sotan finally skidded to a halt as both he and Mako reached Rintaro in the identical instance.

"What's that?" Sotan didn't waste his time before asking the older boy about the diminutive card.

"It's our first clue, I found it in the maze," Sotan immediately knew what maze his partner was talking and it never seized to amaze him at how easy it was for the older boy to find his way around the massive area.

"What does it say?" This time it was Mako who asked the question.

Rintaro opened the paper that was folded in half; it revealed writing, positioned in the way of a poem or rhyme. Sotan looked over the boy's shoulder and read out loud what the poem said.

_'A place, where the future god spends most of his time, _

_Is a home, of a critter no bigger than,_

_one single dime.' _

"Huh, what's that supposed to mean?"

"I don't know." Rintaro admitted but to his surprise Sotan almost instantly burst out "The training grounds!"

The other two children looked at their friend in confusion.

"What makes you think that?" Rintaro asked.

"Just follow me I'll explain on the way." With that said Sotan raced to the nearest training grounds.

Mako and Rintaro run after him trying to keep up, however the young boy was known to be quite fast which didn't make their life any easier.

Mako was the first that spoke as the squad dashed through the trees "Sotan so why are we looking for the training grounds?" It was obvious that neither the girl nor the boy who run beside her knew the answer to the question.

"The rhyme mentioned a God, and the Kages of the hidden villages are viewed by their people as Gods."

Mako nodded, now that she thought about it, it seemed to make sense 'but still why the training grounds?' she thought.

Sotan as if reading the girls mind carried on explaining his theory, "In order for a Kage to reach their position they must be powerful in order to protect the village. This means that they must spend most of their time training"

"So you think that our goal is one of the training grounds?" Rintaro asked which earned him a simple nod.

Mako was thinking hard about what her teammate said and somehow now it made perfect sense 'The place, where the future god spends most of his time' she thought about the line a bit more and couldn't help but wonder how Sotan found out the meaning.

Soon the trio reached the closest training grounds which were placed south of their meeting point. The grounds where surrounded by a high fence which absorbed chakra when the two touched in order to prevent and ninjutsu from escaping and attacking anyone who was walking past. The ground consisted of dry earth and a few scattered pebbles here and there were also around three massive, strong oak trees on the sides near the fence.

As the children searched around they were slightly disappointed since they couldn't find anything, after all though, they had no idea what they were looking for.

"Sotan," Mako said as she looked at the boy who was older than her by a few months any yet syill younger than Rintaro.

"What's up?"

"Doesn't critter mean creature or animal?"

Sotan nodded as he continued to search by crawling on the ground.

"Umm, well the poem told us about a small creature so shouldn't we be looking for a critter then?" Mako questioned.

As soon as Sotan heard this his face lit up, "I know just the place, thanks Mako"

After calling Rintaro over, the team set out once again searching for a clue that would help them find what they were looking for.

It didn't take them long to arrive at another training ground this time located in the south-east. This training ground however hadn't been used in a long time and therefore it was more like a forest with hundreds or even thousands of different types of vegetation.

"How are we ever supposed to find one tiny bug in here?" Mako asked no one in particular.

"Come on let's get to work," Rintaro said quickly before he walked forth to open the gate and walked in, followed by Sotan and Mako.

After discussing their plan the children split up in search of a bug in a forest, this sure was going to be difficult.

"Where are you? Come on out mr. bug" The young girl cooed as she examined around, in bushes, on leaves and under rocks, however no matter how hard she looked she couldn't find a single insect.

She sighed as she checked under a large rock before confirming that there was nothing there and then sitting down.

"I'm no help at all today," She muttered and just then she heard a peaceful sound coming from deep with the long grass.

Mako turned around and noticed something small and green leaping through the large storks of moisturised grass.

Mako's face instantly lit up as she carefully stood up and tip toed after the tiny bug.

"Wow…" The young student whispered as she came face to face with a massive tree the trunk of the tree was covered with many tiny green and brown bugs and it only took her a second to recognise the species as grass hoppers.

"Hey, Mako did you find anything?" The voice of her comrades came from the west and the east side of the clearing.

The girl looked up her face beaming with delight as she nodded her head in Sotan's direction before turning back around.

The boy's exchanged glances before they shrugged their shoulders and walked towards the girl, they were amazed at what they saw. A unique massive tree over populated by all types of different grass hoppers.

"How do we know which ones the right one?" Sotan asked but just then the smallest creature jumped onto Mako's shoulder.

"I'm guessing this one," The girl answered as she raised her hand up and allowed the grass hopper to leap onto her palm before she brought it back down and cupped her hands with the miniature figure inside.

"Where do we go next then?" Sotan asked slightly confused.

Mako turned her body slowly around so that she was able to look at their surroundings, as she did this Rintaro kept his gaze on the grass hopper.

"That way," Rintaro said as he pointed south, surprising the other two children.

"But how do you know?" Mako asked still holding the grass hopper.

"All the other grass hoppers have their antenna facing up but this one has it pointed south even as you move." The boy explained.

Mako turned around just to check if this was true and sure enough it was.

All three then agreed and raced through the forest and out of through the gate. Mako ran at the front using the grass hopper as a compass and guiding her team. The trio run through the streets past the people, without stopping. They raced all the way down to the harbour.

When they finally reached it all three were breathing heavily. Mako looked down at the insect and she noticed it smile which confused her slightly then within seconds in vanished replaced by a cloud of smoke.

"Was that a summoning animal?" Rintaro asked as he finally caught his breath.

His teammates merely half nodded as they focussed on recovering.

* * *

Kunai bashed into each other in the darkness of the alley as neither opponent was eager to give up. A muscular man with unclear features due to the darkness stood facing off against a teenage boy with a black cloak.

"What is this? This is the fourth guy I battled today and they just keep getting stronger," The cloaked man said although it was clear that he wasn't even struggling against his opponent but simply playing around.

"Impossible how can someone like you be able to hold his own against me? Who are you?" A monstrous voice belonging to the muscular bloke asked.

As a glimmer of light, which had escaped through the uncovered top of the alleyway that kept the two opponents hidden from the rest of the world, crossed the shadowy faces of both individuals pointy ears and large fangs could be seen on the face of the brawny man. However due to the hood covering his foe's the only this which was visible was the smirk which stretched across his face.

"Who am I you ask, that's the same question that I was asked by all those other half beasts half humans" The teen answered still smirking.

The light soon disappeared off of his face and reappeared on the beast's face who begun to get goose bumps.

"I didn't tell my name to those other ones though, however I will make an exception since you seem to be the strongest so far. Now my name, my name is Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki, you might want to remember that and tell your friends to stay out of my way." As the boy finished his speech he thrust his kunai into his opponent's knocking it out of his hand and allowing it to glide through the air before finally landing on the concrete with a loud clang.

The beast's eyes widened even more before he gave of a scared screech and escaped with his tail between his legs, literally.

"What are those things anyway and why are there so many of them?" Naruto asked himself before he put his weapon away and picked up his opponent's one up before putting it away as well.

"Oh well it's time for dinner anyway, ramen here I come!"

'Why don't you ask me what I would want for a change?' A deep voice asked from within the young boy who smirked as he came out from within the darkness, "You'll get your chance soon," Naruto answered.

'Stubborn as ever, just get extra bacon this time' the voice commented.

"You bet"

* * *

"Is it here?" Sotan asked as he looked through the doors of the ramen shop.

'Hey, it's that guy again,' He thought before moving onto the next store.

"You guys come over 'ere'

Sotan looked around and noticed Rintaro standing across the bridge by 'Miso Soup'.

"What is it?" Mako asked as she followed Sotan.

As the two approached their destination and looked through the glass doors of the shop, both children looked shocked at what they saw.

"Is that?" Sotan begun,

However Rintaro finished his sentence of for him "Yoichi sensei,"

The Jounin sat at a table enjoying his soup with many licked clean bowls beside him.

The children walked in, Sotan was slightly annoyed at his teacher's actions but stuck with his team nevertheless.

"Sensei," Mako said, conveying the man's attention to the group.

"So you finally finished, I didn't expect a warm up like that to take you an entire day," Yoichi explained surprised at the sight of his students.

"Warm up? You were supposed to teach us, help us get stronger but instead you tell us to race around the village while you enjoy a nice meal. You call that training?" Sotan almost screamed at the older man, eyes glared at him from all around.

Unable to control himself the young trainee turned around and run through the door, heading for one of his favourite places 'The ramen store'.

It didn't take him long to reach the place and as he walked in he wasn't very surprised to see the hooded man again sitting by the counter. Sotan walked over to the worktop where he sat down beside the man and ordered one large bowl of ramen.

The young woman with midnight blue hair tied in two ponytails instantly served him a fresh bowl. Sotan thanked her before he reached for a pair of chopsticks and slowly enjoyed every bite he took.

"Huh, are you feeling alright today Sota?" The lady asked as she looked with slightly worried emerald eyes.

Sotan didn't answer he just simply nodded.

"Oh come on, what's wrong?"

"It's nothing,"

"Really, well how's your training getting along?" She asked once again.

The boy's face darkened within moments and he looked up, his eyes threatening to allow tears to escape at any moment.

"All we did was pointlessly run around; I can't take it we don't learn anything and we don't even train. Mel, how am I supposed to get stronger?"

The girl didn't answer her expression dropped.

"You can't always rely on someone else; sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands. If that means you have to train yourself or ask someone else so be it. However if you have a goal you should never give up" The deep stern, uninterested voice of the hooded man beside him said as he finished his ramen and asked for seconds.

'Only repeating what someone else told him,' Once again the voice from within the older boy said tiredly however only Naruto heard this.

Sotan stared at the man; he wiped away his tears and nodded with a twinkle in his eye.

"I know, mister would you mind training me?"

Naruto hesitated he looked at the boy his face still completely covered.

"I don't have time for things like that, I have better things to do and anyway I was only passing through this village," He said sharply before pushing his second bowl out of the way and placing a voucher beside it.

"Oh please mister, you're really powerful I saw you defeat that guy in the alley and save the girl and then you pinned my sensei to the wall like that, it was awesome."

"I had no choice if I didn't stop that fight they would of destroyed this place," The traveller was about to walk out when Sotan quickly called out "What if I pay for your ramen until the exams?"

This seemed to spark the boy's interest, 'I'm going to run out of vouchers soon,' Naruto thought to himself "For how long kid?" Sotan's expression instantly brightened "Two weeks"

"How about a week, a week and a half at most?"

Sotan wasn't very happy about this at first but soon he agreed, the girl by the counter who went by the name of Mel couldn't help but smile as she took the empty bowls of ramen and gave them to one of the girls who were washing the dishes.

"When do we start then sensei?" Sotan asked eagerly.

"Right now,"

* * *

**I know this chapter probably seems really rushed but I just found out yesterday that I'm supposed to be going on a short holiday so I won't be able to update for a while, so I decided to post this chapter as soon as I could. I hope there aren't many mistakes; I'll try and fix it up a bit when I get back, but due to the reviews and all the comments and alerts that this story got over the past three or four days I decided to update as soon as possible. Oh and there's still a POLL on my profile, if you don't know where then it's at the top above the picture and it has 'vote' written in blue you just have to click it and vote, so please do, it will really help me with this story. Feel free to PM me if you need any help but I won't be able to answer for a while so please don't feel offended. Anyway I want to thank all of you who read this story and I would like to give special thanks to:**

**_SinOfDisaster and Black Rookie~ For reviewing, thanks guys and I'll do my best ;)_**

**_ThrashPunk23 and digimonfanatic4ever~ For adding this story to their fav._**

**_Darkrexbeta,ThrashPunk23 and TigrezzTail~ For alerting._**

**Please tell me if I missed you of the list I'll try and add you to the list for the next chapter.**

**Anyway bye guys I hope to hear from you again soon ;)**


	5. Naruto's Lust for Battle

The golden honey coloured sun gradually floated down the sky, its rays gently brushing the surface of houses and trees. White fluffy clouds floated in the different shades of the auburn sky. The gentle breeze ruffled the leaves of sturdy, strong standing trees and occasionally plucked out a single leaf from the chestnut branches. All was peaceful as citizens and ninja alike returned to their rightful homes where their families eagerly awaited them.

South of the village however was a training ground, filled with sand and pebbles. Four trees sat on one side of the high aluminium fence, and beside them stood two figures there was a smaller figure with sloppy, silver hair and a taller figure who stood in front, his features however where not visible due to the dark hood which covered the top of his face and the high collar of the pure black cloak he wore.

"Now let's see what you can do" The voice of the older mysterious figure ordered and the silver haired boy immediately nodded his face was lit up by the sun's rays and the wide grin on his face showed just how excited he was.

The cloaked boy known by us as Naruto Uzumaki pulled his arms out from his long sleeves, his black fingerless gloves only revealed his fingers as he did a quick hand sign and within second a cloud of smoke appeared from beside him. Sotan, the younger boy, stared at the cloud until it slowly vanished leaving behind an exact replica of his new master.

"Awesome a clone!" The boy exclaimed.

"All you have to do is cause this clone to disappear, you can use whatever means necessary in order to achieve this" With this said the real Naruto and the copy exchanged glances before the real one stepped away into the shadows of one of the apple trees, signalling for the match to begin.

As soon as Naruto was out of the way Sotan got into battle stance before making a hand sign with which around ten clones where summoned. On the command they all scattered hiding around the training ground waiting an ideal time to pop out.

The Naruto clone simply stood in place waiting for his pursuer to reveal themself. Just as predicted moments later the young boy jumped out of a nearby bush launching himself towards the target. However just as the boy neared Naruto leaped out of the way, as Sotan hit the ground beneath him a cloud of smoke surrounded him and he disappeared almost as quickly as he appeared.

'So the kid used a clone as a diversion, he's not as dumb as I thought' the growling voice from within Naruto stated.

The boy simply gave a slight nod before reaching out with his hand in order to lower the collar of his cloak. After he did that he bit into a juicy red apple which by luck fell from the tree and into his hand, however Naruto's facial features where still invisible because of the tree's shadow which covered the boy.

Naruto's clone was about to land back on the gravel when suddenly from the top of the massive rock Sotan reappeared holding a kunai as he pounced at his opponent. Naruto's clone simply pulled out his own weapon as the two clashed against each other in mid-air. Sotan's face was full of surprise as he stared at the clone countering his attack like a real human being.

"How can a clone do that, is that a shadow clone?" The boy asked in surprise as he remembered someone telling him before about how shadow clones are like the real thing, made from flesh and blood.

"Alright that's enough I saw all I wanted, release" As Naruto made the hand sign the replica of himself vanished with a loud 'Poof'.

Sotan stared at his teacher in confusion as his clones too disappeared one by one.

"So you can use the clone jutsu and the disguise jutsu, anything else?" The older boy asked, as he threw the core of his apple away, his collar already adjusted so that it sat covering his face.

Sotan looked like he was thinking for a while before he answered "I can also do escape jutsu".

Naruto stared at him for a while before saying "Use anything you want to climb that tree as fast as you can," As he said this he placed a pair of kunai, shuriken and a rope on the ground.

Sotan stared at each for a second, he was just about to take the rope when he changed his mind and grabbed the pair of kunai. After he reached the tree he turned around to look at Naruto who nodded for him to start. The young silver haired gave a single determined nod back at his master before digging his kunai into the tree and pulling himself up.

Naruto sat back under the apple tree and looked once more at his student, whose kunai had just slipped off the tree causing the boy to lose his balance and fall to the ground with a painful thud. This however did not stop him as he jumped back to his feet and raced at the tree once more. Naruto yawned as he leaned against the tree trunk and slowly fell into oblivion.

'Naruto wake up,' Came a loud growl from within the boy.

This sudden outburst caused one of Naruto's eyes to flatter open; at first the boy was surprised at where he was sitting but just one glance at the battered hole punched tree in front of him triggered his memory. He looked up and was surprised to see Sotan sitting at the top, his face all bruised and scraped and his clothes torn in a few places however the wide smile on the boy's face took all of Naruto's attention.

'So he made it' Naruto thought to himself as he stood up and brushed small particles of dirt off of his cloak.

The sun was a lot lower now than before and Naruto could tell that the time was nearing eight and it wouldn't be long now until the sun set completely.

"Alright you can get back down now," The older boy called up.

Sotan nodded and used his kunai to get back down, placing his feet into the holes dug up by the kunai previously. Half way down the boy jumped down landing in front of Naruto.

"Well that wasn't bad but you have to remember that just because I give you equipment to choose from doesn't mean you can't combine them or that you have to use them. You could have tied the rope around the kunai and simply thrown the kunai up and hurled yourself up. Now I want you to climb that tree with no equipment" Naruto pointed to another slightly smaller tree this time.

Sotan nodded as he swiped his hand over his forehead removing any sweat and run to the tree before beginning to climb. Surprisingly even though he fell quite a lot he made it up there relatively quickly before he lost his balance at the top and fell all the way down. After that the lad just couldn't get back up to the top no matter what he did.

"That's enough for today now go home and get some rest we'll start again tomorrow," Naruto finally said as Sotan sat motionlessly at the base of the tree breathing heavily.

The silver haired boy nodded as he stood up and followed Naruto out of the training ground before setting of back home.

* * *

The sun rose from above the hills and the large walls which protected the newly formed village hidden in the waters. The village was only built a year and a half ago and at the moment was the place of residents for the ninja of the River Country. However due to it being new the village didn't actually have many ninja, the children who currently attended the academy where going to be the first purebred members if they passed which is why everyone in the village was so excited for the upcoming exams.

Deep within the forest in the south of the village stood a training ground where a particular silver haired boy was training early in the morning.

Sotan had a stopwatch round his neck as he tried to beat his record of climbing up the large tree placed in the training grounds. The boy was improving and yet occasionally he still lost balance and fell to the ground, dusty and dirty.

Not too long after Naruto walked through the gate, the young trainee was slouching and drool seemed to escape through his collar.

"What's wrong sensei?" Sotan, who had just fallen once again, allowing him to see his master, asked as he stood up and brushed the particulates from his favourite pair of black jumpsuit bottoms.

The older boy didn't respond however and his stomach answered for him as he swayed sideways almost falling over but luckily regaining his balance.

Sotan couldn't help but giggle slightly at his master's poor posture.

"Ok breakfast time!" The boy exclaimed as he quickly checked into his wallet, and after putting it back he raced up to the gate.

It didn't take the boy long to realise that Naruto was completely dazed and simply stood in the same place like a zombie. Sotan sighed before he run back and begun to push the older cloaked boy out of the training grounds.

* * *

Finally after what seemed like ages the two boys reached their destination, and to Sotan's surprise as soon as someone opened the door, allowing the delicious smell of the ramen escape, Naruto regained consciousness and raced straight past the Jounin, letting Sotan apologise.

After a bit more explaining to the older ninja and a few more words of apology Sotan managed to finally walk into the small restaurant without any trouble. His face however instantly dropped as he took a few steps into the building.

"You can't be serious," The silver haired said aloud as he stared at the table right in front of him.

Sitting there stuffing his face with ramen was none other than his teacher. Around nineteen empty bowls of the Japanese dish lay on the wooden table and another twenty if not more on the floor beside Naruto. All the people in the room seemed to stare at the boy who just finished licking his bowl clean. The cloaked figure leaned back on the chair and patted his belly, satisfied with the morning meal.

Sotan couldn't believe it, he reached back into his pocket and took out his duck shaped wallet before flicking it open, without taking his gaze off of his sensei the boy flicked through his money.

Mel the young waitress walked to the table before placing down a bill.

"Oh hi Sota" She said, before walking over to the boy and standing beside him as she looked on in the direction of Naruto.

"I've never seen anyone eat so much; I wonder how he's planning to pay for all of that" The girl whispered, she turned her head towards Sotan, the boy didn't move for a while.

Mel stared at him for a while confused then at Naruto and back at Sotan, "Hey, isn't that the guy that was supposed to teach you?"

Sotan stayed motionlessly he clipped his wallet shut, bringing the girl's attention to it. Slowly Sotan's arm rotated towards her like a rusty machines. Mel stared confused at the boy before reaching her hand out under his. Then with a thump Sotan opened his hand and the ducky fell into the girl's out stretched palm.

It didn't take her long to realise what was happening as she remembered the promise the silver haired made to the cloaked man. Mel forced a smile across her face as she sweat-dropped, her friends reaction still the same until suddenly his head dropped down, chin touching his chest. Mel deciding that that wasn't the time resolved to collect all the empty bowls of ramen and take them back to the kitchen.

"How did I get here anyway?" Naruto asked as he rapidly swayed his head all around the shop.

It didn't take him longs to notice Sotan finally recovering by the entrance, the boy was still slightly shaken but he slowly got over the face that his allowance was gone. The silver haired slowly walked to the table where Naruto sat adjusting his collar and hood.

Sotan sat quietly opposite his teacher and for a moment he wondered if it was the same person.

"Here, make this on the house" A slim gentle hand placed ramen filled bowl in front of Sotan.

The boy looked up, surprised to see Mel smiling warmly. In the girl's hand was his yellow duck wallet. Sotan thanked his friend before putting the starved duck away and reached out for a pair of chopsticks.

"That sure was refreshing," Naruto said before standing up and tucking his chair behind.

Sotan looked surprised at this and was about to say something when the cloaked boy added "I'll see you at the training grounds when you finish" With that said the boy walked away.

Sotan couldn't help but be revealed that his teacher was back to his mysterious ways and yet he had a feeling he would miss the sensei that sat before him only moments ago. The sensei which seemed so laid back, playful and ramen loving.

* * *

"What just happened?" Naruto asked himself as he walked through the door, for some reason he couldn't remember a thing except for the fact that he was starving when he woke up, and the next thing he knew he was stuffing himself with his favourite dish.

Naruto shook the thought out of his head, as he kept walking his pace steady. At that moment all that the boy wanted was to exercise his muscles, he wanted to finally be able to battle a worthy opponent who he would have to use jutsu on in order to succeed, and yet he had a feeling that was near impossible. After all at the level the teen was on at the moment it was almost impossible to find anyone stronger or even equal in strength. Naruto sighed 'just a little longer and I'm going to become all rusty' he thought.

'At least then it'll be easier to find a partner worth battling' the growling voice within the young boy answered looking at the bright side of the situation.

Naruto gave another sigh; a sudden wave of chakra tickled his senses slightly improving the boy's depressed mood.

'This is the same chakra as before kid, it must belong to that human-beast'

Naruto nodded at the statement made by the growling voice before commenting "Yeah but it feels stronger even if only just"

The small boost in the chakra level of the beast was enough to perk up the boy's interest as he picked up his pace. Naruto's chakra was giving off the intense taste of curiosity and an excitedly desperate lust for battle, however this scent was only available to those with exceptional sensory skills and even then they would have had to be at Jounin level if not higher.

The figure of the teen slipped through crowds and seemingly jogged to a very familiar alley. The alley where the boy battled the beast for the first time, he also realised that that was the first time he saw his current apprentice however he quickly rid himself of that thought. He entered the darkness. Excitement was written all over his face, but of course no one could see it due to his face being completely covered up his actions however gave it all away.

* * *

**The end, of this chapter anyway so don't worry I'm not planning to stop writing this story :D Anyway as you can see I'm back from the holiday which was more like a five day trip than anything else but it gave me enough time to plan out some more chapters even though I combined bits of all of them in this chapter meaning that the plans where actually kind of useless -_- **

**So after publishing this one I'm going to go over the once I've written so far and try to improve them as promised to narp73 who PMed a few mistakes to me. **

**Ok so I just wanted to say that I've been reading some very interesting fanfics (Naruto) lately and I would like to recommend some of them to you so let's begin, in no particular order:**

**_Naruto Eledia by CmorPants21, Adventure_~ It's a very well written with a unique story line, the first chapters are also what inspired me to write 'Solitude of the Hero'. There are a few chapters which concentrate on the OC's slightly too much (Which is the same problem I'm having at the moment) however even so the characters are very interesting and special in their own ways. The Author is also really fun to talk to ;)**

**_Lost Soul by LD 1449, Adventure_~ This story has actually been completed with 117 chapters and 591,593 words. The story itself is very gripping; the language it's written with is also very advanced. The battles are really amazing, and very easy to imagine in your mind. Naruto's personality is also very stimulating due to it being a lot like Sai's and yet completely different at the same time. **

**_Mortal Ninja Kombat by narp73, Adventure/Humour_~ I actually really love the idea for this story, since you get to vote on Polls for the ninja who should battle each other in a tournament set by Lady Tsunade. So far only one chapter has been written so I can't really tell yet if the battles will be any good, however you won't know unless you vote for who you would like to see in the match ;) I suggest reading it and voting so that it will progress (Please vote I want to see the match even if it's only in my head!)**

**_Light and Leaf by DarkBlackHeart, Adventure_~ A very interesting story which is also updated quite frequently (so far anyway) I found the first chapter slightly confusing but after asking the author a few questions I now fully understand the story and love it! There are a lot of flashbacks however and even though most are interesting to read there are a couple which I skipped and read after the normal parts of the story. I also really like the tint of NaruHina which only lasted for a few sentences but it was really cute, and I actually really don't like romance so it's really surprising that I didn't skip that part, I guess it shows just how interesting the story is.**

**There are a lot more stories that I would like to mention here but I think I'll just post them in the next chapter since there's still quite a few, anyway I hope you read them I'm really enjoying them at the moment so I just wanted to share them with all of you. Also if there are any fanfics you would like to recommend me to read feel free (Warning: I don't like romance, however I'm not saying that I won't try them). Now I would like to thank everyone who's reading this story even though it's been progressing really slowly so far, but don't worry it'll pick up the pace soon and Naruto will go back to being the main character since the Sotan has taken his glory at the moment but don't worry that'll change for sure ;) Now special thanks go to:**

**_Decius23, Peter Kim, Lemarteskun and narp73~ For the wonderful reviews, thank you so much._**

**_Mawii99, Rasho, duskraven, juvenual and thegreatandillustriousLEADER ~ For alerting._**

**_Shadary, Darkdawnomega and Fire of the Void~ For adding this story to their fav._**

**Thanks to all of you so much!**

**Finally, the _Poll_ is still on my profile so please vote and I was also hoping to try and get up to _20 reviews by Easter if not more with this story_ (I don't mind if they're from the same person but a bit of verity would be nice). Anyway bye for now everyone hope you review, follow, alert fav etc. Most of all however I hope you enjoy the story :D**


	6. The Cougar Revealed

Darkness was all that was visible through the normally human eyes. No light, not even a glimpse just a simple black colourless atmosphere. The environment felt cold and different, the old building which once stood by the side of the valley was now covered in building frames trapping all light; this meant that the alley way, down below was covered in blackness with not a single streak of light. An echo could be heard flying through the thickness of the air, the echo of mischievous, eager footsteps making their way across the cement.

There was a slight shift in the air and almost instantly a loud swoosh was heard coming rapidly towards the source of the footsteps. However there was no sound of collision and therefore it was clear that the target was not hit.

"So you avoided that, quite lucky aren't you, but normal human eyes won't be able to keep up or avoid this in the darkness. Actually I'm surprised you even managed to get out of the way of that I guess I was too loud" With that said another swoosh was heard but this time it disappeared within seconds and the air was filled with silence.

Only seconds later the sound effect returned followed up by many other, signifying that either more enemies joined the fight or the opponent was extremely fast and skilled.

"Impossible" A whisper was heard from the shadows.

"He's dodging all my attacks, but that's impossible there's no way he could see in this darkness" The voice said once more as if to notify someone of the current situation.

A speck of light appeared in one of the windows of the construction building, however the light was enough to cause a reflection by a kunai which was bouncing around trying to hit its target, the light disappeared and the last action of the kunai which could be seen was the rapid swoop down. Right at that moment the weapon struck some fabric, most likely a hood, revealing a bloodthirsty red eye which shone brightly.

"You tore my hood; do you even know how much I'm going to have to pay to get it fixed?" The slightly angered voice of the owner of the eye asked.

"Th..a.t eye, it's not human," The attacking opponent stammered and the sound of his retreating steps could be heard as he slowly moved back.

"Like you said a human eye can't see through this darkness, however a cat's eye can adjust to any dusk"

"You, who are you?" The stammering voice asked full of fear.

"I already told you guys that" Even though it was impossible to see, the tone of the ruby eyed opponent gave away the fact that he was smirking.

After a few seconds of silence a gang of footsteps fell to the ground each with a thud.

"So, you did have company all along,"

The stammering opponent didn't answer, and it was uncertain if he was even there at that moment.

"His name is…" One of the human beasts covered by the darkness begun however he was unable to finish due to the kunai which burst through his heart, blood sprayed all around, and this could be seen even through the thickness of the dark.

The owner of the red eye had his arm outstretched, proving that he was in fact the one who threw the weapon.

'There's a shift in the air, someone else is here' the shadowed figure thought to himself,

"Why you!" The angered voice of a young woman roared through the alley.

"Well I couldn't allow anyone else to find out my identity."

Surprisingly as the creature took its last breath the darkness of the alley lifted slightly, allowing everyone to be able to see each other's faces.

Naruto stood his red eye shining however he almost instantly lifted up his torn hood back down to cover it.

The demons that stood before him looked powerful way more powerful than the last one he battled, was he a decoy? No that wasn't it maybe he simply underestimated his opponent.

Naruto could still sense the presence of another human up on one of the buildings and therefore he decided to end this quick just in case, so that no information about him escaped into the open. With another unexpected flick of his wrist another kunai went flying striking another one of his opponents down.

The opposing female from before walked forward, her eyes flaring, and tail flicking as she made her way to the front of her gang with a forceful grip on her sword.

"You won't get away with this!" She growled her sharp teeth grinding as she talked.

She launched forward, furious. Naruto couldn't help but be a little surprised, he pulled a kunai out and the weapons collided. They clashed back and forth as neither opponent wanted to back down. They kept jumping around pushing each other back. Naruto had to admit that she wasn't half bad and yet this didn't convince him to battle seriously.

"Why do you care so much about those who fell? After all it just means that they're weak and don't deserve to be on a strong team" Naruto explained as their weapons clashed ones again.

"You monster how could you say that? They were my comrades!"

Naruto smirked at the words she used, after all she was the one who was a beast not him.

The human-beast jumped back to her allies' red with anger. Another beast jumped out from behind her ignoring her warnings that their opponent was too strong for him to handle.

His wolf tail perked up and his teeth grew sharper as he stared at Naruto. He launched forward in order to attack but Naruto read his movements almost instantly, sent another kunai into his chest.

There was a loud cry as he collapsed to the ground, dead.

The female's eyes grew even larger, they flared up in red and her clothes burst apart as he muscles grew and turned furrier turning her almost fully into a powerful, cougar.

Naruto took notice of the animal with its bright yellow eyes and large, sharp fangs which could crush human bones with ease.

"So is that your true form, or is this a borrowed body? After all I don't see the point of fighting someone who is so weak that they have to rely on a fake body"

The cat's eyes grew wilder and suddenly it disappeared, only to reappear right above the hooded teenager.

"You've become faster, but not fast enough!" Naruto threw his arm up above his head with a kunai gripped tightly in between his fingers as the cougar's powerful nails smashed against the metal.

The two stayed in that position for a few seconds staring into each other's eyes, then swiftly Naruto's arm pushed up higher and the beast leapt back, landing on the dirt with a thud.

Naruto could see the glares he was receiving all around he could also hear the almost silent whispers of the spectating beasts who couldn't believe that their leader was being pushed back so much by just one shady individual.

Naruto cleared his voice and instantly everything went silent, only the slight rustling of the wind could be heard as it brushed against the clothing of those present in the alley.

"Come on, don't hold back this can't even be classified as daily exercise" The teenager commented as he looked around, and into the eyes of each individual, until his eyes finally rested on the orange cat-like creature in front of him.

The cougar growled and bared its fangs and then it launched at its prey once again, it flew gracefully through the air. The boy however easily dodged and for a few moments a game of cat and mouse was taking place in the passage. Every time the cat sprang up at its victim the boy sidestepped out of the way.

The other beast-men watched in complete silence incapable of doing anything in order to help their friend who was jumping from side to side with exhaustion.

Eventually the cougar froze, breathing heavily compared, to the human standing before her who was lazily watching her, or so she thought since she couldn't see his face due to it being covered by the shadow of his hood.

"Alright play time's over" Naruto said although his voice sounded slightly disappointed.

The boy's gloved hand reached under his jacket and when it resurfaced the metal weapon he held just second before was gone.

Gasps of shock could be heard within the crowd of beasts as they all stared at the teenager who was willing to battle unarmed. However their shock grew even more intense as they took notice of the way he pivoted on his left foot and stopped right before them.

The beasts stared. Naruto stood still his hands in front of him, fingers clenched inside his palm with only the index and middle fingers of each hand outstretched and pressing against each other.

After a minute or so, the tips of Naruto's fingers begun to emit a sapphire light, surprising all the beasts. With a sharp throw of his arms in a cross ward direction a sudden gush of extremely high pressured wind shot forward.

Everything seemed to slow down as the cougar heard the almost silent noise come from her opponent's mouth, "Blade of wind". The three words send a chill down her spine.

Suddenly the pace turned back to standard and a horrifying scene unravelled before the cat's golden eyes.

Ear piercing screams of agony could be heard as the wind penetrated through the flesh of its victims, allowing the crimson blood to seep out overwhelmingly. And then all was silent. The bodies collapsed to the ground, lifeless. Not a single being spared as the wind gradually vanished only leaving a gentle breeze behind.

Naruto lowered his hands down and turned to his last standing opponent, the cougar.

The big cat stood in disbelief glaring at the deceased bodies lying on the ground motionlessly and silently. The cat's amber eyes suddenly filled with hatred and an unstoppable urge to kill and destroy. The beast vaulted towards its target, he however was already prepared and in an instant grabbed his kunai from under his cloak and thrust it straight towards the fiend. The yellow eyes almost instantly rolled to the back of its head revealing the whites, and then the body dropped to the ground. The orange fur begun to shrink and within moments the cougar was back in its original form; a woman.

The teenager walked towards the corpse and swiftly positioned his hand on the grip of the bloody kunai before hauling it out. The blade slid out through the flesh of its victim effortlessly, unclogging the wound and allowing red liquid to pour out. The boy however did not seem to care as he simply smeared the razorblade on the torn piece of clothing of the dead woman before placing it back under his cloak.

Naruto gazed up onto the building for a moment where he saw a figure in a tan cloak hiding within the darkness a strand of purple hair escaping from under the drawn up hood, Naruto smirked before lowering his head back down as if nothing happened and walking away. The boy made his way back through the darkness of the alley and back to the village where his young pupil awaited his return.

* * *

Up on a building which was being prepared for reconstruction, in the dark room, by a small window stood a figure a tan cloak lay over their shoulders. Large violet eyes stared out of the window, eyes filled with surprise, confusion and disbelief, eyes that belonged to a young girl who just witnessed several human-beasts being knocked down by a single mysterious figure. The girl shivered in fear just at the thought of the event and without thinking she spun around and strode across the dim room towards the wooden door on the other side.

With a loud creak the door unsealed before being once again bolted leaving the room shrouded in complete silence.

* * *

**Hi everyone sorry for such a long delay but I don't have time to chat so I'll post the next chapter soon two weeks at most and I'll include all the people who reviewed, liked, followed etc in the next chapter since I don't have time in this chapter and I don't want to delay it any further, so bye for now and I hope you enjoyed it.**


	7. Shuriken Manipulation Jutsu'

Two days have passed since Naruto wiped out the human-beasts, and Sotan mastered chakra control. With a few days remaining Naruto decided to speed up the process of training by teaching his silver haired pupil a new long awaited jutsu…

Sotan stood in the training field staring at the three shuriken dug into the soil, reflecting the rays of the sun with their clean silver bodies. The young ninja in training stared for another minute or so motionlessly before looking up at the cloaked man standing behind the weapons.

"I don't get it," The boy said helplessly.

Naruto couldn't help but sweat-drop; after all, he placed the shuriken into the ground about an hour ago, seconds before Sotan arrived. When the boy had come in excitedly and when he saw the weapons he run to them without hesitation. Naruto was almost sure that the kid's reaction meant that he knew the trick to the new jutsu, but after standing in the same spot for just under an hour all the boy could say was that he didn't get it.

"Sensei how is this anything to do with the new jutsu?" Sotan asked, staring up at the hidden face of his master.

The older boy sighed before explaining simply, "You're going to learn a shurikenjutsu today"

Sotan stared confused, he glanced at the shuriken and back at Naruto.

"Just stand back there, I'll throw these three at you and you have to avoid them, understood?"

Sotan nodded but his grey eyes showed the disappointment he felt for having to simply doge three shuriken, after all he already had thousands of shuriken thrown at him during the past three days so he was sure that from all that practise he could dodge these with ease. Sotan didn't object though and simply went to his designated spot.

"Ready?" Naruto asked already knowing the answer, but even though he waited for the sign to begin.

As soon as Sotan gave a quick nod Naruto launched forward and grabbed two shuriken with his hands while at the same time as he raised himself he caught the last shuriken with his foot. Then almost instantly in a cross ward motion he released the two shuriken and immediately tossed the third one into his open palm before throwing it after the previous two.

At first Sotan was slightly surprised at Naruto's fast actions but he quickly regained focus and one after the other he dodged the weapons. As he landed on the ground from the leap he had to do, in order to avoid the last shuriken he brushed his forehead with the back of his arm. The boy looked up at his master with a smile.

"I thought I taught you better than that, never let your guard down" The stern voice said.

Sotan's smile almost instantly vanished as he turned around just as a shuriken flew passed his face grazing it and causing some blood to spill. Sotan was shocked and froze in place as two more shuriken flew right past his face narrowly missing it.

"Like I said, never let your guard down," Sotan turned his frightened face in the direction of the voice which belonged to Naruto who now had possession over all three armaments.

"How," Was all that managed to come out of the young boy's mouth as he wiped his injured cheek with his right palm, ridding it of the dried blood.

Sotan could feel the cloaked boy smirk from under his collar, before he answered; "It's a simple D-rank shurikenjutsu which you will learn within the next three hours" Naruto then reached under his cloak before pulling out another shuriken and throwing it to his pupil.

Sotan managed to grab the shuriken in mid-air luckily without having to suffer from another scratch.

"Three hours?" The boy repeated and Naruto simply nodded.

The next hour was spent with Naruto trying to teach Sotan the basics of shurikenjutsu as well as the technique the boy was currently learning.

Sotan was however surprised when he heard that the entire trick was simply to do with tying very thin almost invisible elastic string to the shuriken before throwing it and controlling it in the air.

In practise the trick however proved difficult as the shuriken flew in all directions even towards its own puppeteer, who was forced to leap out of the way each time while trying to keep the weapon in control.

An hour past before the silver haired boy finally managed to gain control over a single shuriken but the difficult part was still to come.

Naruto sat on the peak of the highest tree within the training grounds, simply to avoid getting targeted by the shuriken, especially after Sotan begun training with two.

Leaping from side to side and over tree after tree trying to avoid the two flying shuriken, that's how Sotan spent the next half hour before he begun to grasp the technique which had to be used.

After that Naruto begun to teach his apprentice how to defend with the 'manipulated shuriken jutsu', he done this by throwing many weapons at Sotan who had to dodge them or reflect them using the string linked shuriken.

Finally after three hours of intense training Sotan managed to grasp the basics of using the jutsu with two shuriken.

Next Naruto sent the exhausted and injured boy on a run to the store to get two pots of ramen, while he lazily lay under a tree staring at the clear sky.

When Sotan returned it was clear he didn't allow himself a single break during the trip which made Naruto quiet pleased. The two sat in the shade of the large oak while eating their hot cups of ramen however neither spoke, keeping the atmosphere quiet and tranquil with only the sounds of nature to keep things alive as well as the occasional slurp.

On a number of times Sotan had the urge to look at his tutor hoping to see his face; however each time he attempted to pick his head up it would drop back down from fatigue.

The break only lasted twenty minutes and after that time passed it was back to training.

"Now, get up that tree and then jump from the lowest branch up when you get to the top jump to the top branch of the next tree and make your way down then to the next tree and so on, I'll be using the 'Manipulated Shuriken Jutsu' to try and make you lose your footing, so keep your guard up and start!"

Sotan didn't ask any questions and as soon as he reached the first branch Naruto released his shuriken.

The exercise lasted just under an hour leaving Sotan all battered and bruised however he was still rearing to go.

The next exercise was to try and improve his accuracy. Naruto dropped a tiny leaf from the top of the tree and Sotan had to use his newly learnt technique to slice the leaf. Even after an entire hour the silver haired still didn't make his mark.

Although Naruto wasn't impressed with the boy's accuracy and concentration he decided to allow him a short break before learning a new technique.

"What's that?" Sotan asked the older boy who handed him a small piece of paper after the end of the break.

"Everyone's chakra has its own nature. There are five different chakra natures; fire, water, earth, lightning and air. Each has an advantage and disadvantage, fire has an advantage over air however it's weak to water, and on the other hand water is weak against earth which is weak against lightning. Air however has an advantage over lightning. This paper will indicate your chakra nature if you pour you chakra in it. If it crumbles your chakra nature is earth, if it burns its fire, if it becomes soaked its water, if it wrinkles it's lightning and finally if it splits into two then your chakra nature is air, now give it a try."

After the long explanation Sotan reached out and took hold of the blank sheet. He concentrated hard allowing his chakra to flow smoothly into the paper. A few seconds later he felt the damp sensation beneath his fingertips, as he opened his eyes he saw the paper drenched and water dripping slightly from the corners.

"So it's water?" The boy asked with a grin and Naruto nodded in response.

"Now the next technique you'll be learning is the 'Water Release; Gunshot' a technique powerful against fire but weak against earth"

Sotan's smile increased even more, his eyes twinkling at the sound of the new technique.

"Alright go home pack, we're leaving straight thing tomorrow morning" Ordered Naruto, Sotan stared at him confused his smile fading.

"But why, where are we going?" The young boy asked still in confusion.

"To train obviously," Was the simple answer that came from the cloaked boy.

Sotan didn't answer, his head tilted to the side unresponsively. Naruto sighed clearly annoyed at the youngster's helpless behaviour.

"There's a volcano near here, right?" Sotan shook his head before answering, "The nearest volcano is about two weeks, non-stop walk from here"

The silver haired felt his teacher smirk from under the collar of his cloak, "We'll get there in three days flat"

Sotan stared at the older boy confusion written all over his face, "That's impossible!" He exclaimed after a second of thought.

"Nothing's impossible kid, we're getting there in three days and that's final" Came the hooded boy's stern voice which sent a shiver down Sotan's spine.

"But, there's a dragon in there, some say many have gone there and where mercilessly slaughtered by its huge claws and immense fangs!" The boy explained his face blue from just the thought of meeting the dragon.

"Well that's just perfect for your training; you will be the first to slay that beast" Answered Naruto as he turned around and slowly walked away, across the training field.

Sotan stood, frozen to the ground, shaking at an incredible pace his teeth chanted loudly and his face turned from blue to snow white in a matter of seconds. How was he a 12 year old kid with the ability to only use E-rank and D-rank jutsu supposed to kill a massive dragon who already has the blood of many smeared all over its enormous claws. Was this even possible? Or was his sensei only joking? After all Sotan wasn't even a ninja yet.

* * *

**Hope you like this chapter I managed to keep my promise and update within 2 weeks, phew. **

**Anyway this story will now be on hold for a month as I'm going on holiday in a few days, I might update another chapter right before the leave but that depends on you guys and if you would like me to, if so then review, follow, favour or alert I don't mind all ;)**

**Anyway I need a code name for Naruto a name as well as a number to be precise I need them for next chapter so the quicker you give them to me the quicker the next chapter will come :D Try to keep the numbers between 0 and 24 though (if possible).**

**One more thing before I mention everyone who reviewed, followed etc. **

**The personality Naruto has when his around Sotan isn't his true personality. Naruto is actually dark, his true personality is revealed whenever he fights the human-beasts that is the only clue you're getting. There's actually a reason why he's training Sotan, you will find out soon so don't worry.**

**Now I would like to thank these guys for sticking with the story:**

**_TigrezzTail and Peter Kim for reviewing :D_**

**_ .luna, Berna45 MonkeyWthAKnife, Kistunefighter12 and gibbonsl for adding this story to their fav._**

**_ .luna, MonkeyWthAKnife , Biplis, GaaraFanGirl77, lazy9409, ArcticAC , Gaara Girls, Jinren , Kistunefighter12, Rasho, The White Cross Crusader, gibbonsl, thegreatandillustriousLEADER and russub19 for alerting. _**

**Thank you all for taking your time to read this story it's not the best but I'm doing my best, and please inform me if I missed you our from any of the above categorise, I'll try and add you to the next 'chapter's thanks'. Anyway hope you all enjoyed this and I'll post after I get back or before I leave ;) So bye for now and remember to send me some code names and/or numbers. **

**_17/5/13_**


	8. A Plan

The moon was high in the sky, beautifully eliminating all the houses and buildings. It glowed brightly surrounded by millions of glistening silver stars laid on the dark, clear night sky. The village was peaceful with only a few widows filled with the yellow light of the room's light bulb, providing a source of radiance for the inhabitant within the chamber.

One of these rooms belonged to Sotan the young, silver haired, ninja in training. The boy sat quietly on his bed, his room was filled with all sorts of junk (as his sister liked to call it). Sotan sat motionlessly, his chin in his palms and his eyes staring lifelessly at the door before him. By the light, wooden door if his room was his bag, it was dark green in colour with many pockets and clearly it was filled up to the top.

The room was silent, as was the rest of the house, only the peaceful ticking of the clock could be heard. It filled the entire room.

After a while a key could be heard being turned in the golden lock of the door to the small household. Seconds later the door was pushed open, however Sotan still didn't even budge a muscle. Footsteps where approaching fast and house suddenly filled with fear or worry, the steps got louder and louder until the stopped by the side of the boy's room.

The top of a head appeared by the corner of the room including the silver eyes of a teenage girl.

"Few, it was just you little bro," No answer.

"I was worried there for a sec, I wasn't sure why the light was on in the middle of the night" Still no answer.

"Why aren't you in bed yet anyway?" Silence.

"Sota… Are you ok?"

Sotan blinked, he hesitated, his vision was blurry after staring for hours blankly at the door.

"Oh hi sis," He answered in a slightly sleepy voice.

"So you're ok, that's good," The young woman who wore a beautiful, purple, velvet, office dress sighed in relief as she placed her house keys on Sotan's drawer before placing her outstretched hand onto his forehead.

"You don't have a fever that's good" She said as Sotan brushed her hand off of his face.

"Well it's late so I'm going to sleep; I have work tomorrow after all" Continued the teenage girl as she spun around on the spot before reaching out her hand to grab her keys, just then though she froze.

Her silver eyes met with the bag and she instantly pulled her hand away, leaving the key where it sat.

"Sota you aren't going anywhere are you?" The girl asked as she turned her head round to stare at her brother's dirty slightly bruised up face.

"Nowhere in particular just out to train for a little while with my sensei." The words simply came out however not in too much detail.

The girl's face lit up, "Why didn't you tell me stupid?" She asked with excitement as she run to the bag he black her flowing after her.

She grabbed the black zip and pulled at it releasing the flap and pushing it away so that it landed roughly on the other side of the bag. Then within a split second her smile faded as she turned to face her little brother, who was leisurely scratching his back. She stood up holding the bag before she turned it upside down. Tons of food poured out from the unzipped luggage. Crisps, chocolate bars, pasta pots, ramen pots as well as hundreds of other types of food escaped before crushing to the ground.

"No what are you doing?" The wailing voice of Sotan bounced off the walls as he jumped beside the pile of food, tears streaming down his face.

"Sota that's all you packed?" The question hung in the air for a bit before the boy answered,, "That's all I'd need"

The young woman sighed before she dragged the bag out and called for her brother to go to sleep.

* * *

"You do realise the Kage will not allow you to do this right?"

It was beginning to get lighter now that it was almost five in the morning, one hour until Naruto's and Sotan's departure.

"He can't stop me, the kid came to me to train him and that's what I'm going to do, and if the old man doesn't like my methods then he can take him back it wasn't my choice anyway." The stern voice of the cloaked teen wrung through the trees in the forest where he lay on the top branch of the tree.

"But if the kid goes so does your mission after all you need him in order to gain the village's trust, wasn't that your plan?" The deep growling voice came from within the body of the teenager.

"As long as I get the trust of that kid I'll complete the mission and the only way to do that is to help him improve. Kid's they're so naïve,"

"You were like that once to," The growling voice sniggered slightly as he said this.

"I know, and that was my biggest mistake"

The wind picked up shaking the branches and striping the older leaves of the brown Oaks and Elms that surrounded the area Naruto sat in.

* * *

**Sorry I know it's a crap chapter but I least I uploaded right -_- **

**Sorry I couldn't make it longer but I've already delayed my trip to Spain by more than half an hour. So bye for now guys and I'll write to you soon. When I come back I'll go over it and extend it so don't worry this is only for the time being bye ;)**

**P.S. The Poll is still open with most names drawing in third place with one vote, three in second place with two votes and so far the one that's winning has 6 votes (but which one is it? ;)) please vote everyone.**

**(1/8/13)**


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